📖 Meaning
To trace things back to their origins and seek their fundamental roots. It means to recount the entire cause and full process of an event in complete detail, leaving nothing out.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Han dynasty scholar Ban Gu's 'Rhapsody on the Western Capital' (西都赋), where the phrase appears in the context of demonstrating exhaustive knowledge and thorough investigation. The repeated characters '元' and '本' emphasize going back to the very beginning and the very root of matters. Over time, the phrase evolved from meaning scholarly thoroughness to describing the detailed, complete narration of how an event unfolded from start to finish.
💡 Example Usage
他把这件事情元元本本地陈述了一遍。
He recounted the entire matter from beginning to end in full detail.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 元元本本
- Pinyin: yuán yuán běn běn
- Literal Translation: origin origin, root root
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4